Page 79 of The Alpha Dire Wolf
My mind was wandering, trying to focus on anythingbutwhat I had just read.
“What the hell are you trying to say, Grandma? Retie the bond? What bond?” It sounded like some sort of ridiculous witchcraft. Was she secretly crazy and thought herself a witch? It would make sense, except …
Except she talked about the intuition. She described it perfectly. The sensations, the innate trust. Everything was the exact same as I experience. Which means she isn’t crazy.
I rubbed at my face, rereading it again.
Find the guardian. That wasn’t the first time she’d mentioned the word either. But this time she said they would be drawn to me.
My mind immediately went to Lincoln. How could it not, after the inexplicable connection we’d experienced. The intensity of it. Was that what my grandmother meant by an impossible to ignore call? Could he really be the guardian after all? But he’d said he wasn’t it.
Only … only he had never actuallysaidthat, I now realized. He’d deflected. Introduced himself, without saying a word.
“So maybe I found the guardian,” I said to the journal entry. “But whatnow, Grandma? You didn’t tell me what to do after that. I’ve got nothing to go on. How do I retie this bond?”
The journal was silent and unhelpful, of course. Just like my phone. Nobody wanted to be around to help me when I needed it most.
At least I knew what I was going to do next. I had to find Lincoln and corner him. Get him to answer me firmly about whether he was the guardian, and then explain what the hell that meant. Was he just part of some silly religion with my grandmother?
Even as I thought it, I knew that wasn’t the truth. My grandmother had been obsessed with the forest for a reason. Not insanity.
I looked out the window and across the yard at the forest. Watching it. Was Lincoln out there, waiting for me among the mighty trunks? Stalking me, like he had that first time?
A rumble filled the sky and gently rattled the house.
Frowning, I leaned closer to the window to look up at the clear sky, curious where the thunder had come from. No storms were called for.
At that moment, dark clouds boiled up out of nowhere to occlude the sun and bring darkness to the forest. Thick and black, they blocked all the light. The shadows fell over the house as well, and I shied back away from the window, uncertain as the absolute inky pitch black doused any light source.
“Well, that’s not natural.”
Any other words were drowned out as a massive flash of light stabbed down from the sky in a single bolt. I screamed and fell back from the window as the unimaginably loud thunderclap followed, shaking the old house badly enough I heard crashes from within. Some books spilled form the bookcase as well, hitting the floor with heavy thumps.
I hid in a ball until silence reigned and the light returned.
A minute or so later, when nothing absolutely dire happened, I slowly uncurled and got to my feet.
“Oh my god,” I gasped, finally looking out the window.
In the yard where the great oak tree had once stood, now was only a blackened and dead remnant.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sylvie
Istared for the longest time, waiting for something else to happen, but it never did. The tree just stood there, dead—from alive to gone in a split second. No fire flickered in its core, no ash blew away in the wind.
The tire swing was nowhere to be seen. Stretching out from the tree were long lines of black-scorched grass. The lightning had come from nowhere and struck the one tree not part of the forest. Then it was gone, disappearing back into the clear blue sky as fast as it had come.
I stared at the maze of blackened lines etched into the ground, all leading back to the tree itself.
“That’s some coincidence.”
I searched my gut for any warning signs, any fears of danger, but I got nothing. Was it really a freak accident?
It couldn’t be. The clouds had bathed the house in darkness. It had been so pitch black that I hadn’t been able to see my handin front of my face. For a split second only, perhaps, but I hadn’t imagined it. I wasn’t crazy.
I picked up the journal and looked at the last entry once more, where my grandmother had said that I would think her crazy.
